10. He isn't that bad

Nate's POV

I blink my eyelids thrice before slowly opening them to the morning sun rays peeking in through the creamy white curtains in the room, tickling my eyes. As I try to move a little, a heavy weight locks me back into place. Soon arms curl tightly around me with a small groan.

I smile and close my eyes once again, enjoying the warmth of Alex's body against my back and his arms curled tightly around my waist, his hip and legs curved in the same angle as mine, pressing them against mine. Alex always holds me like this, providing me all the warmth I need.

Without opening my eyes, I squirm and try to turn around. Alex loosens his hands a little, letting me turn around and place my head in the crook of his neck. Once I stop squirming after finding a comfortable position for my head in between Alex's neck and shoulder, he again tightens his hug.

Being warm, inhaling Alex's familiar scent of cologne and the feeling of being protected and comforted by him, I snuggle further beneath the warm blanket, we both are currently swamped in and throw my arms on his body, hugging him back tightly. I don't feel like waking up anytime soon. I don't want to go to school. I just want to lie like this entangled in Alex's limbs forever.

Wait! I am not at home now, am I? And Alex is dead! He isn't here with me anymore! Who am I hugging then? I quickly open my eyes at the sudden realization. I quickly lift my head up to see a handsome face. It's Alex's face itself.

No! It's Ethan!

I tilt my head a little and look around with my bleary eyes to realize I am in the dorm room, lying on one of the two beds, wrapped between very heavy yet hella nice arms that belong to Ethan and I'm being pressed up against his chest in a sort of comforting position with my face against his neck.

Soon things from the previous night come rushing to my head along with a heavy headache. I received a lot of heavy slaps yesterday and now my head feels extremely heavy and my left cheek feels completely sore.

I look up and examine Ethan's face. He is still sound asleep, hugging me tightly. He looks quite peaceful. I slowly peel his hands off of my body without waking him up and move a little away from him to observe him better.

He isn't exactly like Alex. Alex's lips were a bit more thicker, especially the bottom ones. Alex's nose was not this straight. He had a bit more short nose compared to Ethan. 

However, Ethan's eyes look exactly the same as Alex's. He is sleeping right now. So I can only see his dark eyelashes resting on his pale cheeks but I had seen his eyes yesterday. It looked so similar that I felt like he plucked out Alex's eyeballs and fitted it on his own face. Ethan's eyebrows are different. They are more thick and long. Alex's loose curls were like Ethan's but it wasn't this dark brown. 

If I speak about body, Ethan is more muscular. I saw his bare body yesterday, just in a short towel. He has more muscles and has prominent biceps and abs. And Alex's skin was paler. Anyway, Alex was more handsome.

Looking at Ethan's face, I think about yesterday. My first day at this school was eventful. I had thought people would finally leave me alone. But I was completely wrong. This school is worse than my previous one.

I never thought I would get caught in some kind of situation like this. The worse I expected was people calling me 'Stutter boy', making fun of me and bullying me lightly. But now I even got labeled 'gay' and that guy, 'Tony' is going to make me his 'maid.' I can't do anything since his uncle is the dean. I know that I am now in the literal hell with all these devils surrounding me.

But I was wrong about one thing. Wrong when I thought Ethan is a devil with my brother's face. I'm sure Ethan isn't that bad. I think he was forced to slap me by his friends. I have a lot of reasons to think this way

Yesterday evening when he found me here in the room and realized I am his supposed roommate, he didn't shout at me or beat me like his friends did when they saw me packing my stuff. Of course, he threatened me but he didn't touch me. If he was really bad, he would have just pulled me out of the room by my hair like his friend did. But he gave me time to pack my stuff.

Then again he tried a little to stop his friends from assaulting me. Actually he didn't do anything but looking at him, I could clearly understand he didn't want all that to happen to me. He looked like a helpless Alex, looking at me in pain. But Alex won't stand like that seeing me getting hurt. If he was Alex, he would have been in Jail right now for the murder of four.

However, what shocked me the most was how he behaved yesterday night when I started panicking after he turned out the lights in the bathroom. Of course, it was his fault, I started hyperventilating. But he didn't know I was afraid of dark. I couldn't even move my limbs to get up and unlock the door even after he switched on the lights. He broke open the door, carried me in his arms to the bed and helped me regain my breathing. He didn't shout at me when I had trouble breathing. All the time he only encouraged me and breathed along with me. If it was one of his friends, I’m sure I’m dead at the instant because they would yell at me or shake me or slap me harshly and scare me even more. But he was patient and was genuinely concerned.

After I came back to a normal state, I hugged him tightly and started crying embarrassingly, uttering Alex's name. I don't know why I did that. Maybe because I really wanted to hug him or I just wanted to hug Alex again.

 Ethan didn't try to pull me away or peel my hands from his body. But he hugged me back and whispered sweet nothings in my ear like Alex would do when I'm upset. But the only difference is Alex would call me 'Michael' instead of 'Nate'.

Ethan then slowly made me lie down without breaking the hug. He rubbed soothing circles on my back as I cried on his shoulder. Probably after some time, I stopped crying and eventually fell asleep, hugging him.

I’m not saying Ethan is entirely good but I am sure he isn't that bad. Because he was ready to sleep hugging me even after he thought I was attracted to him.

Or wait! Is it like he is gay and he is attracted to me and was taking advantage of my vulnerable state?

No! It can't be like that. Ethan sure can't be gay. And oh! He has a girlfriend. That skinny bitch who slapped me is his girlfriend. So it's just that he is a bit nice at heart and he felt sorry for me. So, I don't need to worry.

 But it would have been nice if that girl was not his girlfriend and those jerks were not his friends. I could have made an attempt to become friends with him. I really want to get close to him because he looks somewhat like Alex and I really miss Alex.